Lady Eboshi: Now watch closely, everyone. I'm going to show you how to kill a god. A god of life and death. The trick is not to fear him.
Lady Eboshi: What exactly are you here for?

Prince Ashitaka: To see with eyes unclouded by hate.
Moro: Ah, you're awake. I was hoping you'd cry out in your sleep, then I would have bitten your head off to silence you.
Toki: I wish the wolves *had* eaten you! Then maybe I could've found a real husband.
Toki: Thanks, stranger. My husband's an idiot, but I'm glad he's safe and sound.

Prince Ashitaka: That's a relief. I was starting to think I'd done something wrong by bringing him back home.
Kôhroku: Huh, I didn't know the Forest Spirit made the flowers grow.
Toki: [to Gonza] Even if you were a woman, you'd *still* be an idiot!
Kôhroku: [testing his arm] My arm... It doesn't hurt anymore. It's *healed!*

[bones crack]

Kôhroku: OW! No, it's still broken.
Lady Eboshi: [Ashitaka interrupts the fight] What do you think you're doing, boy?

Prince Ashitaka: Stay your hand. The girl's life is now mine.

[San viciously bites Ashitaka's arm]

Lady Eboshi: I'm sure she'll make a lovely wife for you.

Prince Ashitaka: There's a demon inside you. It's inside both of you.

[the curse remanifests as a mass of worm-like tendrils, shocking everyone]

Prince Ashitaka: [to the crowd] Look, everyone! *This* is what hatred looks like! This is what it does when it catches hold of you! It's eating me alive, and very soon it will kill me!

[San tries to make the curse leave her alone]

Prince Ashitaka: Fear and anger only make it grow faster!

Lady Eboshi: I'm getting a little bored of this curse of yours, Ashitaka. Let me just cut the damn thing - *off!*

[swings her needle at Ashitaka]
Lady Eboshi: Cut off a wolf's head and it still has the power to bite.
Jigo: When you're going to kill a god, let someone else do your dirty work.
Jigo: Are you selling soup or donkey piss?
Jigo: Well, I give up. Can't win against fools.
San, The Princess Mononoke: Even if all the trees grow back, it won't be his forest anymore. The Forest Spirit is dead.

Prince Ashitaka: Never. He is life itself. He isn't dead, San. He is here with us now, telling us, it's time for both of us to live.
San, The Princess Mononoke: [seeing the humans cutting down trees] Why chop the trees down?

Moro: [about the boars] To make them angry. Which makes them stupid.
San, The Princess Mononoke: You two go on ahead. I'll stay here and deal with the human.

San's Wolf Brother: What about the elk?

San's Wolf Brother: Yes... Can we eat him?

[starts panting]

San, The Princess Mononoke: No, you may not. Go home!
Jigo: Give the head back now? Come on, boy. Don't be silly. Now, when the sun's about to come up? Look! He's a brainless, life-sucking god of death. At sunrise he'll vanish like a bad dream.
Lady Eboshi: Stay here. Help me kill the Forest Spirit, Ashitaka.

Prince Ashitaka: You would do that? Kill the very heart of the forest?

Lady Eboshi: Without that ancient god, the animals here would be nothing but dumb beasts once again. Once the forest has been cleared and the wolves wiped out, this desolate place will become the richest land in the world... and Princess Mononoke will become human.

Prince Ashitaka: "Princess Mononoke"?

Lady Eboshi: Princess of the spirits of ghouls, beasts, and ancient gods. The wolf stole her soul, and now she lives to kill me.
San, The Princess Mononoke: [to the apes] All right, what do you want here?

San's Wolf Brother: Apes! How *dare* you show such disrespect to the wolf clan!

Ape Tribe: This is our forest. The human... Give him to us. Give us the human and go.

San's Wolf Brother: *You* go, before my *fangs* find you.

Ape Tribe: We will not go. We will eat the human. Yes... we will eat the man creature.
San, The Princess Mononoke: Ugh, I smell like a human.
Boar in Okkoto's Tribe: The Forest Spirit saved *him?* Saved the life of this loathsome runt? Why didn't he save Nago? Is he not the guardian of the forest? Why?

Moro: The Forest Spirit gives life and takes life away. Life and death are his alone. Or have you boars forgotten than?

Boar in Okkoto's Tribe: *You lie!* You must have begged the Forest Spirit to spare his life! But you did not beg for Nago, did you?

Moro: Nago was afraid to die. Now, I too, carry within my breast a poisoned human bullet. Nago fled, and the darkness took him. I remain, and contemplate my death.

San, The Princess Mononoke: Moro, please ask the Forest Spirit to save you!

Moro: I have lived long enough, San. Soon, the Great Forest Sprit will let me rest forever.

San, The Princess Mononoke: All these years, you've defended the Forest Spirit! He *must* save you!

Boar in Okkoto's Tribe: You are not fooling us! Nago was beautiful and strong! He would not have run from anything! You wolves must have eaten him!

San, The Princess Mononoke: Quiet! Watch what you say, you filthy pig!
Okkoto: Look on my tribe, Moro. We grow small, and we grow stupid. We will soon be nothing but squealing game... that the humans hunt for their meat.
messenger from Lord Asano: You ladies need to be taught some respect!

Female fire worker: Respect? What's that?

Female fire worker: We haven't had any respect since the day we were born!

[the women collectively give the messenger the "raspberry"]
Kaya: Ashitaka!

Prince Ashitaka: Kaya, what are you doing here? You know it's forbidden!

Kaya: [holding out her crystal dagger] Do you think I care about that? I came to give you this, so you won't forget your little sister.

Prince Ashitaka: [taking the dagger] Your crystal dagger. Kaya, I can't take this.

Kaya: Please keep it with you, brother, to protect you. You *must* take it with you. Please, I want you to have it, so you won't... forget.

Prince Ashitaka: Kaya, you know I could never forget you.
Gonza: [as Ashitaka approaches the fight between San and Eboshi] Huh?

[Ashitaka walks forward, the curse manifesting on his arm]

Gonza: [draws sword] Traitor... *You're a spy for the wolves, aren't you?*

[Ashitaka continue to approach, grabbing Gonza's sword by the blade]

Gonza: [as Ashitaka bends the sword away] Stay back...! Uh... Halt - !

Prince Ashitaka: Step aside.

[Ashitaka walks past him, leaving traces of the curse on Gonza's sword; Gonza suddenly holds it at a distance, whimpering]
Toki: Why don't you take off your mask? I bet you're really handsome...

[later, when Ashitaka pulls his mask off]

Toki: Hey...! You're not handsome, you're *gorgeous!*
San, The Princess Mononoke: Why did you stop me from killing her? Tell me while you're still alive!

Prince Ashitaka: I didn't want them to kill you. That's why.

San, The Princess Mononoke: I'm not afraid to die. I'd do anything to get you humans out of my forest!

Prince Ashitaka: I knew that... from the first moment I saw you.

San, The Princess Mononoke: And I'm not afraid of you! I should *kill* you for saving her!

[San turns Ashitaka around, takes out his sword, and aims it inches over his neck]

San, The Princess Mononoke: That woman is evil, and there's no one who can stop me from killing her.

Prince Ashitaka: No... Live...

San, The Princess Mononoke: That's enough! I'm not listening to you anymore!

[presses tip to throat]

Prince Ashitaka: [opening his eyes] You're... beautiful...

[San gasps, jumps back]

San's Wolf Brother: What is it, San? Want me to crunch his face off?

[all stare at Ashitaka for a moment... until a rock sails in and breaks the moment]
[first lines]

Narrator: In ancient times, the land lay covered in forests, where, from ages long past, dwelt the spirits of the gods. Back then, man and beast lived in harmony, but as time went by, most of the great forests were destroyed. Those that remained were guarded by gigantic beasts who owed their allegiances to the Great Forest Spirit. For those were the days of gods and of demons...
Hii-sama: You cannot change fate. However, you can rise to meet it, if you so choose.
Jigo: These days, there are angry ghosts all around us - dead from wars, sickness, starvation - and nobody cares. So you say you're under a curse? So what? So's the whole damn world.
Moro: [about Ashitaka] You know, that boy wanted to share his life with you.

San, The Princess Mononoke: [burying her face in her fur] I hate him! I hate all humans!
Moro: Now leave this place at sunrise. Return, and I shall kill you.
San, The Princess Mononoke: [trapped in Okkoto's corruption] No! I don't wanna become a demon! Please stop, Okkoto!
Moro: [dying words] Ashitaka... Can you save the girl you love...?
Hii-sama: My prince, are you prepared to learn what fate the stones have foretold you?

Prince Ashitaka: Yes. I was prepared the very moment that I let my arrow fly.
San, The Princess Mononoke: Ashitaka, you mean so much to me, but I can't forgive the humans for what they've done.

Prince Ashitaka: I understand. You'll live in the forest, and I'll help rebuild Irontown.
Osa: Life is suffering. It is hard. The world is cursed. But still, you find reasons to keep living.
Prince Ashitaka: Well, they say that happy women make a happy village.
Jigo: What do you say we give 'em a little demonstration of how fast we can run, huh?
Gonza: [seeing Moro's pups run away] That was it? They weren't so big.

Lady Eboshi: They're just pups. Wait 'til you see their mother.
Lady Eboshi: [readying her rifle] It's Moro!
[San's first line]

San, The Princess Mononoke: Go away.
Lady Eboshi: [as Ashitaka tries to keep his arm from drawing his sword] Does that right hand of yours wish to kill me, Ashitaka?

Prince Ashitaka: [struggling] If it would lift the curse, I'd let it tear you apart. But even that wouldn't end the killing now, would it?

Lady Eboshi: No, it wouldn't. It would have to kill all of us to be at peace.
Prince Ashitaka: [Sees riflemen readying guns] It's a trap. No, wait! Princess of the wolf-gods, don't go down there! Go back to the forest! Listen to me, please, don't throw your life away!

Gonza: [Turns to Lady Eboshi] Shall I stop him?

Lady Eboshi: [Stares at wolf-girl and Ashitaka on the roof] Leave him be. Let him do as he likes.

San, The Princess Mononoke: [Wolf howls in distance, readies knife and charges down roof towards Lady Eboshi]
Amishi Elder: I am the eldest of the Amishi. Our tribe was driven here by the ravages of the Emperor. Now our youngest warrior must cut his hair and go off into the unknown? Sometimes I think the Gods are laughing at us.
Toki: Big dope. Don't ask me why I love him.

Princess Mononoke Quotes

Extended Reading

Princess Mononoke short comments

Jerry 2021-10-20 19:01:21

Epic, breathtaking. You can imagine how many animations and movies it has inspired! The progressive change of the male protagonist's emotional level (his behavior from beginning to end is worthy of careful study), the elves on the tree are so cute. What an exciting story. 【. . After watching various versions of Avatar for an afternoon, I looked so good and cried.
Suzanne 2022-04-24 07:01:02

Hayao Miyazaki's animations are all classics, each full of deep meaning.